World Negative One
by Magocracy
Summary: This is a dark/epic fantasy Mario Bros. fanfic It contains elements principally from the first three games, and artwork for the story can be found on my Deviantart account. (See profile) The story has an emphasis on the psychology of the characters as well as the savagery of war in a fantastical Kingdom on the brink of ruin. I encourage reader response and suggestions.
1. World Negative One, part 1

WORLD NEGATIVE ONE

One last tantalizing glimpse of light.

The rush of water, swirling, boiling down a drain.

Iron hands squeeze the brother's chests. Oxygen-starved cells scream in anguish, death gnawing at them, one by one, death racing in blue-stained discs through veins and capillaries, death crowing in triumph in the spasming coils of the cerebrum and the frontal lobe.

In short, they were drowning.

A splash and the elder brother throws up his hands. The younger, dropped from those sinewy bonds, flops bonelessly in the surf. They drag themselves onto an alien shore, vomiting brine. Air fills their lungs. Death applauds, happy with their triumph. They are strong; death will find a more suitable ending for them.

The elder brother is amazed that they are even alive. The water just came from nowhere. He stands up, looming over his sibling. For a moment his features are twisted in parental worry. His brother has always been weak. When he is sure that his little brother is fine, he grabs him by his overalls and helps him to his feet.

"We must have been pulled through with the runoff. Thank God for small favors, ay Lu…"

He looks around with a jerk, mustache bristling.

"We aren't in Brooklyn anymore", "Lu" mumbles.

They are on a beach. The sea (a sea, the younger thinks) is behind them. There is no sign of how they came to this place, but neither brother notices this. The mushrooms have caught their attention. The beach terminates into shrubby grassland at the edge of a forest of toadstools. The tallest are over ten stories with caps that you could land a helicopter on. Smaller fungi grow in clusters at their bases in a riot of colors. There is nothing else; the sea, the forest, and the strip of sand between them.

The brothers wordlessly contemplate their predicament. They are dressed in overalls and steel-toed boots. Their hats are lost, washed away by the maelstrom. The older brother is shorter than his sibling, something that annoys him more than it should.

"Where are we?"

"How am I supposed to know that?" He regrets it immediately. He has always looked out for his brother. All we have here is each other, he thinks.

"I don't know. But we'll find out. We'll find a way home."

He is trying to be comforting, but the worlds are hollow.

"How do we know this is even a place? How do we know we aren't dead or something?"

"Lu" knows he isn't helping. He is thoughtful by nature and what he sees terrifies him. He doesn't know what this all means, but it will keep him awake for many nights.

The elder is not a thinker. He will continue to sleep soundly (despite his dreams). The toadstools are simply an obstacle.

"We aren't dead. We are just somewhere else. That's all I know. And that's all we'll know until we get off this fucking beach."

"So we're going into the mushrooms?"

"Yes. There's nowhere else to go."

The older brother makes for the wood but something scuffs his boot. It was a sledgehammer, the one he had been holding before they were lost. He hefts it, appreciating the weight of the solid steel head. Who knew what they might run into in that wood?

"Hey, look around for something to defend yourself. My sledgehammer made it, so maybe some of our other tools washed up on this beach. Look for a crowbar or something."

"How about this?" Little brother waggles a monkey wrench. All of the other tools are missing.

"Good enough. Let's go."

"Are you sure about this?"

"No."


	2. World Negative One, part 2

The forest was vast. The brothers had been lost before entering the fungal landscape but the beach had at least been familiar. The alien world in which they walked was nothing either could have imagined. The great toadstools blocked out the sun, but many of the smaller clusters were luminescent, providing a sort of half-light in the darkness. The soil was barren. The mushrooms had drained the land of sustenance leaving only dry grass and skeletal trees. They trudged through this ghostly landscape, salt-encrusted, parched, famished. How could they survive in this land? They did not dare taste the foul-smelling mushrooms.

They found the village after hours of aimless walking. The hope of finding helpful natives was dashed as soon as they saw the buildings. Mushrooms grew in slimy bunches on the tiled roofs and white-washed walls. Not a soul was in sight; at first glance, the community had been abandoned to the growth. They walked past doors scorched by fire and walls pierced by bullet-holes.

"There was a fight here," the younger whispered. His brother grunted, spying an old stone well. He turned the winch to pull up the rope. The water in the bucket was covered in a film of orange algae. He tipped it back down the hole in disgust. He pointed towards one of the houses.

"We're going to die if we don't drink something. Let's look in that house. There has to be something. Canned food, wine, anything."

"I don't know about that. This village was looted."

"Just look."

They picked through the rubble and rubbish of a kitchen gone rancid. What they found was discouraging. A cloak caked in mold. A tea-kettle filled with slime. Maggots carpeted the floors. The stink was unbelievable. The younger brother stepped in something wet next to the brick fireplace.

"What the…"

It was a child, face up on the hearth. Its mouth was filled with bulbous white mushrooms. Nightcaps sprouted from blackened eyes. The younger brother turned as green as his shirt and stumbled against the fireplace. Something cracked.

"Look out!"

The fireplace shifted under his weight. Crumby bricks burst to powder as the chimney collapsed. The older brother grabbed his sibling and dragged him towards the door as the roof caved in. They tumbled in the mud outside the door just as the supports gave way. The entire house fell into its foundations with a crash that echoed through the fungal wood.

"What the fuck happened? Jesus, are you ok? I should have guessed the house was unstable with all that rot, we shouldn't have gone in…"

The younger brother simply pointed into the wood.

A red light floated in the darkness beneath the mushroom caps.

"A flare? Should we…"

"No way. We aren't going anywhere near that thing. That house falling probably woke up every thing in the fucking forest and I'm not keen on seeing what lives in a place like this."


	3. World Negative One, part 3

They ran from the light. Muffled voices called for them, the words almost familiar. The brothers were exhausted. Their pursuers were not. Red-clad figures darted around them, encircling them. They were caught.

They were men or at least man-shaped in their robe-like uniforms. Their faces were covered in white masks with glassy eye-holes. They wore boots and belts filled with pouches and each one held a long hunting knife. The five of them were identically dressed save one whose robes were blue. He seemed to be the leader for he addressed them with short, barking syllables.

"I don't understand," the elder brother lied. He knew exactly what they wanted and tightened his grip on the handle of his maul.

"Stay behind me, Luigi," he told his brother. "Watch my back and swing hard."

One of the soldiers darted forward in a feint. The younger brother brandished his wrench clumsily and two more rushed in to skewer him from behind. With a shout the elder swung his hammer in an arc. The backstabbers jumped out of the way but he caught one on the shoulder with a crunch. The man yelped and stumbled, his arm flopping nervelessly. The older brother, fighting against the inertia of his swing, crossed his legs and fell straight on his ass. Someone kicked him in the ribs. He scooted backwards on his butt as steel flashed before his eyes. His brother desperately wrestled with one of the soldiers, the wrench knocked from his hands. Death crouched over them ready to spring.


	4. World Negative One, part 4

Something roared and rushed past the brawl. One of the soldiers jerked as the tip of a steel lance tore through his neck. He was dragged for several feet before he slid off the end of the spike. The fighters gaped at this new combatant. It was a rider mounted on a raptor. That was the first thing the younger brother thought; it was a raptor straight out of a museum, a bona-fide dinosaur.. The rider hitched his beast around and charged the red soldiers. He slashed one across the back with his saber. The man crumpled in the dust. The three survivors bolted. He rode them down. The raptor screeched and lashed out at a soldier with a spiked foot. The rider hacked through a neck, then booted the beast in pursuit of the final victim. The man tried to scramble up the stalk of a mushroom. His gloved hands found no purchase in the slippery surface. The raptor opened its mouth and bit down on the soldier's head. It shook him like a ragdoll until he stopped twitching, then began to feed. The rider slid out of the saddle and walked over to look at the brothers. They looked at him.

He was short and bow-legged with a powerful build. He was dressed in garb that concealed his features; a heavy duster coat, baggy pantaloons and riding boots. His head was wrapped up in a striped turban that made it look lumpy and over-large. His face was covered with a sort of respirator like the dead soldiers. No wonder his voice was muffled.

"Who are you?"

So they do speak English, the older brother thought. He still didn't like the rider, or the raptor which was busy burying its head in guts.

"I'd ask the same."

"Clearly you are ignorant of our customs or unseemly rude. I am T'ao, retainer of the High Kingdom. Now who are you?"

"I'm Luigi," said the younger brother, "and this is…"

"Mario. My name is Mario."


	5. World Negative One, part 5

Beneath a canopy of mushroom caps were five dead men. A raptor gnawing on one of those men. A masked stranger. And two brothers, hungry, thirsty, and lost.

What to say? How could you explain yourself in a situation like this? Luigi grasped with this question in the silence. He started to say something.

"Have you been affected?" asked T'ao with urgency.

"What?"

"Have the mushrooms loosed their spores?"

"No," answered Luigi.

"Then you are lucky men by far. Come with me. Being affected thus in the woods will transform you horribly. We must reach shelter before this happens."

He moved to mount his beast. Mario grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Now you wait a goddamn minute. What are-"

The raptor rushed from its feast to protect its master. The blood-painted muzzle split revealing rows of crimson teeth.

"You'd best unhand me."

Mario backed off.

"I don't know why we should follow you," he said.

"I saved your life."

"For how long? You might kill us both."

"That is true. You will have to trust me."

"Mario has a point," Luigi interrupted. "What's so dangerous about these spores that we should go with?"

T'ao stiffened.

"You do not know?"

"We are strangers in a strange land," said the man in green.

"Indeed. Then see the bane of the mushroom kingdom."

He unwound his wrappings, unhooked the respirator.


	6. World Negative One, part 6

AN: You may have noticed some of these parts are quite a bit shorter than the others. This is because this story was originally uploaded on Deviantart with illustrations. These sections will be updated with illustrations post haste, but for now you may visit my DA account for the full experience.

art/World-Negative-One-part-6-401610597

His face was a ruin. His head was buried in fungal growths. They sprouted from his scalp, his cheeks, growing in the corners of his bleary eyes, his lips. Sparse tufts of black hair grew between spotted mounds on his pate. His skin was ashen, the mushrooms ruddy and spotted.

"This is the least that will happen to you if we do not make haste. Much worse has come to the people of this blighted land."

"We'd better go with him," Luigi said.

"No kidding."


	7. World Negative One, part 7

They marched through the night with their deformed guide. He shared out the contents of his pack, dried bread and fruit and a canteen of tepid water. Relieved of those concerns, the brothers battled exhaustion. T'ao kept his steed at a walk but the fight had drained them. They talked with the rider to fend off sleep and to learn of their predicament.

"What is this place called," asked Luigi.

"The High Kingdom. From where do you hail, not knowing this?"

"Brooklyn," Mario replied.

"Brook-land? There are many rivers there?"

"Sure. Honestly, Toad, I think we'd be better off asking the questions."

"My name is T'ao. T'ao. But I see your point; you are the strangers here."

"All right then. Explain this 'kingdom'."

"High Kingdom. There are seven kingdoms that owe allegiance to the Hermit-King."

"Sure. So what's up with these mushrooms?"

"What's up?"

"He means why are they here," interjected Luigi.

"Yeah. We passed a village before we ran into you; it was overgrown."

"That is a long story. We are at war."

"No shit."

"Mario…"

T'ao glared at them.

"We are at war with an enemy that knows no honor. They are not human. They are Ku'pah."

"Were those…"

"No. Those were shi-geh, traitors. The Ku'pah are lizards, sorcerers. They were the ones who planted the mushrooms which pollute our land and kill our people."

"How long has this been going on?"

"We have fought the Ku'pah for years."

"How is the war going?"

"How it looks," T'ao said bitterly.

Luigi winced. The warrior had put on his respirator but the image of his mangled face was burned into his memory.

"You said sorcerer," Mario said. He was jogging alongside the raptor (yoshi?) , trying to look T'ao in the face. The scout kept looking forward.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? And lizards? These guys you're fighting aren't human?"

"What man would possibly do this to us," T'ao waved his hand at the forest.

As if on cue the mushrooms began to sway. Spores floated down from the gills. They glinted like diamonds in the twilight.

"Make haste! There is a farmhouse ahead! A spore-storm like this will kill you on the spot!"

The brothers shuffled on as fast as they could, the glistening motes coming ever closer. There was the barn. The roof was on the verge of caving in and the yard was filled with puff-balls but it was the most beautiful thing Mario could imagine at this moment. The brothers slammed into the rotting double-doors, knocking them off their hinges. They tumbled in the dirt and ancient manure. T'ao rode right in.

"Close the doors! The wind will carry the spores in!"

He jumped from his anxious steed and grabbed one of the doors. With a strength that belied his size, he lifted the door back into the frame.

"Quick! Grab the other one!"

Between the three of them, they put the door back together. They were safe.

Something growled in the darkness.

"Was that your yoshi?"

"No."

There was a rustling sound, then the glint of metal in the near-blackness.

"My lamp."

The sound of a striking match. The lantern flared into life, painting their faces with a yellow glow. T'ao lifted it toward the sound.


	8. World Negative One, part 8

It was not a man anymore. It was a mass of fungal growths in the shape of a man, a shuffling sack of putrescence that could barely support its own weight. It reached for them with a scabrous hand. It moaned like the wind.

"What the fuck?!"

Luigi shouted as the thing grabbed him by the collar. It stank of sewers and rotten garbage. T'ao drew his sword in one practiced swoop that separated the hand from the creature's wrist. It squealed in agony. Humped shapes lurched into the lamplight; they had stumbled upon an entire brood of the abominations. The yoh-shii lunged into a pack of them, screeching in fury. The lantern spun from T'ao's hand as two of them tackled him. The barn was lit with flickering half-shapes as the men fought for their lives. Mario was unsure of his companions location in the darkness and could not swing his hammer for fear of hitting them. Something wet and reeking slammed into him, running slick bulbous fingers down his sides. Mario was terrified; he had been terrified ever since he'd got here. He struggled in vain under the weight of the grotesque, under the weight of fear.

His brother's cry for help saved his life. It reignited the spark of anger that he had carried in his heart his entire life. So the creep wanted a hug, huh? Mario locked his hands around the monster's waist in a vice-like grip. The thing stopped trying to squeeze him to death and started to slap at him to escape.  
"Fuck you," he growled, squeezing harder.

It was rotten all the way through, a quilt of fungal blooms stitched together with precious little flesh. They burst under his calloused fingers. Black bile splashed his arms and chest as he squeezed, squeezed! Its spine was little more than a mossy stick at this point and snapped just as easily. The thing fell from his arms, bisected at the waist.

This took thirty seconds. The barn was still dark. The yoh-shii thrashed and screamed. Its tail slammed into the walls of the barn with a boom that shook the rafters. T'ao's sword swooshed and flecked them with drops of gore.

"Luigi!"

Something crashed into the wall next to Mario. Light from a crack in the wall crawled up a green shirt and a face contorted in terror and pain. Two of the mushroom-men had him pinned.

Mario grabbed one of them by the shoulders and threw it into the floor. It hissed through its mold-coated teeth until he kicked them in. Luigi pushed the other one away from him with the last of his strength. Mario picked up the wrench his brother had dropped and swung it two-handed. The metal head tore off most of the creature's face.

"Get that lantern," Mario yelled.

Luigi crawled in the direction of the light…

The yoh-shii's whipping tail struck him in the side with enough force to lift him into the air. He slammed into the double doors, knocking them from the twisted frame. The twilight of the forest was stunning after the near total darkness of the barn. A mound of spores had piled against the door. They fell in golden clumps from the gills of the mushrooms far above.

"A spore-storm like this will kill you on the spot," T'ao had said. Mario watched his brother tumble into the blizzard and did the only thing he could. He ran into the storm and threw himself over his brother's body.


	9. World Negative One, part 9

The spores fell thick and fast. They clung to his clothes with barbs and pricked his flesh. At first it was little more than a prickling, like his leg was asleep. It got worse. Ant bites, needles, stabbing! Stabbing! He was screaming, dying, but still he held his brother. He would not let him go.

Strong hands grabbed his ankles and dragged them back into the barn. T'ao stripped off his coat and beat of as many spores as he could. Luigi looked at his hands in wonder. He was barely touched.

"Get the door closed, damn it! Your brother's dying here!"

Somehow Luigi lifted the heavy door back into the frame as his muscles and bruises burned. Luigi found the lantern, miraculously still lit after the brawl. T'ao set Mario in a corner of the room that was clear of mushrooms. The creatures were all dead, scattered in pieces in the dirt. The yoh-shii was regurgitating chunks of noxious fungus its stomach could not handle. Luigi crouched over his brother.

"Is he going to be all right?"

"No. He was exposed to dozens of spores. They will sprout in a few days."

"Will he live?"

"I don't know. He might. He might become a gümbah."

"What?"

"These," he waved an arm at the twitching bodies.

"No. There has to be something."

"There is nothing."

The storm ended. The spores sat in gilded drifts, either sinking into the soil or drying up. T'ao wrapped his yoh'shii's feet in sackcloth. It had been looking ill since the fight.

"Is it ok?"

"Again that expression."

"Is it going to be all right?"

"It should be safe from the spores. It is difficult for them to settle under the scales. But I am worried that too much of the gümbah rests in its stomach. It may sicken from the inside out."

"What will happen to-"

"We should go. Help me get your brother into the saddle.

The journey to the camp took another day. It was the longest day Luigi had ever known. They trudged through drifts of spores up to their knees. T'ao and Luigi had wrapped their legs with cloth as well as the yoh-shii's, but the feeling of the prickly spores was harrowing. If he tripped and fell…

Mario was in a state of semi-consciousness. He spoke when addressed, but his words were slurred and nonsensical. He puked down the front of his shirt and cackled like a madman. He was tied to the saddle to keep him from flopping off like a boneless fish.

The way was difficult. They were moving uphill into rockier terrain where the mushrooms grew more sparse. The setting sun blinded them after the long march through the forest.

"We'll rest here tonight. The army camp is two leagues away, and I will not brave these rocks by the moonlight."

They slept shivering on the bare earth. The morning brought no comfort. The red pin-pricks which dotted Mario's skin had darkened. He was very weak and would not eat.

The yoh-shii had taken a turn for the worse. Its scales were dull and flaking. It wheezed and coughed. T'ao gently opened its mouth and ran a gloved hand along its tongue. A black film stuck to his fingers.

"This is not good. The fungus is spreading."

"Can it walk?"

"It must."

They helped Mario into the saddle. T'ao flicked the yoh'shii's flank.

"Yup!"

Slowly, achingly, it rose to its feet. It shivered and stumbled over a rock, landing hard on its breast. The yoh'shii moaned.

"Damn it. Damn it."

They took Mario out of the saddle.

"Stand back."

Luigi led his brother back several feet.

"Good bye, my friend."

T'ao slashed the yoh'shii's throat. It thrashed weakly for a minute and died in a froth of blood. He turned to the brothers with his sword in hand. Luigi looked at the sword. T'ao looked at Mario.

"It would be a mercy."

"No. Absolutely not."

"He will not get better."

"Damn you."

"What if I just do it?"

"I'll kill you."

"Unlikely."

Luigi picked up a rock.

"Just try me."

T'ao shrugged.

"Then we'll have to carry him. You will regret this."

"Never."


	10. World Negative One, part 10

AN: if you want the full blown, illustrated experience, jump over to deviantart here

art/World-Negative-One-part-10-403926713

also, let me know how I'm doing.

The way was perilous. The forest terminated in a rocky mound dotted with brush and a few stunted trees. They scrambled up the slope. Stones shifted under their feet. They formed a three-man line, arms linked together with Mario in the middle. He limped and dragged his feet. Drool bubbled at the corner of his mouth.

By the time they reached the crest, Mario and Luigi were soaked with sweat. The forest spread out before them into the distance. Orangey mushroom caps crowded together like beach umbrellas for miles. The ocean filled the horizon behind them, and far away, beckoning, calling out to them, was a strip of green. To Luigi, the normality of that grassy plain ached like a broken heart.

"There. You see that clearing?"

He pointed at a gap in the forest.

"The First Riders are encamped there. We were meant to stem the Ku'pah invasion of King Rodan's domain, but we are outmatched. You are lucky I found you; we are about to fall back to his castle."

"Will we be safe there?"

"For a while. The Ku'pah have conquered four of the seven kingdoms. The years of war have worn our armies down, but the enemy still seems as vital as it did in the beginning. You have come into a world without hope."

Luigi didn't say anything. What could he say? Everything was wrong.

They skidded down the hill, tripping over root and rock until they were scraped and bloody. Mario might have been a scarecrow for all he helped. He leaned on them more and more as they dragged him through the toadstools. Luigi ached all over; T'ao steadfastly stayed silent on his discomfort. Finally he stopped them.

"The camp is just ahead. I'm surprised we did not encounter any pickets. Wait here. I will go ahead and alert them of your presence."

"All right."

Luigi sighed in relief and leaned against a mushroom stalk as T'ao walked away.

"Everything's going to be ok Mario. We'll get you feeling better and then we'll go somewhere safe. Do you understand?"  
Mario looked at him blankly. He was shaking with a cold sweat. The red dots where florid on his gray face.

"mmmmmmm. Luiii…"

"Don't try to say anything."

Luigi put an arm around his brother.

"This is all… it's… its so fucked up. We don't even know how we got here, and everything is…" He tried to find the words, but they were stuck in his throat. His eyes were brimming with tears.

"I don't know what's going to happen to us. And I'm so…. so….sorry. This is my fault, you're sick, you're d-d-…"

He couldn't go on. Mario squeezed his arm.

"mmm. Luuiiii…"


	11. Chapter 11

AN: If you want the full, illustrated experience, check it out here

art/World-Negative-One-part-11-404597489

Comment and stuff. I won't bite.

Thundering feet and shrill reptilian cries shattered the silence of the grove. Riders rushed around them, encircling them, trapping them. Luigi hoisted his brother to his feet, but there was no where to go. He was surrounded by a hedge of spears.

"Who are you?" he gasped.

"We'll be asking the questions here."

They were men like T'ao. They were dressed in a mix of long coats and armor, helmets and turbans, but they all wore yellow cloaks. They were mud-spattered and ragged; unshaved, tumorous with mushroom growths. The yoh'shiis were underfed and bony. That did not make them any less terrifying. They were desperate men who looked capable of anything. Luigi could sympathize.

"You are the one called Luigi?" called the leader of the band. His face was concealed beneath a high helmet.

"Yes."

"And that is your brother, Mario?"

"Yes."

"And you have traveled with a man named T'ao?"

"Of course. Who else would we be?"

One of the soldiers jabbed him in the arm with his spear.

"Smartness, boy, will get you nowhere fast, but the question is a fair one. Who you are exactly is a question we are very interested in. Now move!"

They were herded into the clearing in the middle of the pack of chirping, hissing yoh-shiis and their ragged riders. What little of the camp Luigi could see between his escorts was depressing. Drooping tents were clustered together willy-nilly in the clearing. The ubiquitous mushrooms sprouted on the wet canvas in loathsome clumps; several of the tents had collapsed under their weight and been abandoned. Ashes from the cook fire and the noxious dung of the yoh-shii lizards mixed with pungent human odors of sweat and the latrine at the edge of the camp. They pushed the brothers into one of the larger tents in the middle of the camp. They were roughly searched. They had nothing of value, nothing dangerous. The hammer and wrench had been forgotten in the carnage of the ruined barn.

"Feh. This one really is sick," one of the soldiers said. He slapped Mario gently; his head lolled to the side.

"Yeah. Pretty far gone. He'll be a gümbah before too long."

"Shut up!"

The soldiers looked at Luigi. His fists were clenched.

"So you're tough? The fucking spy is tough? Put those fists up and see how tough you are."

"I'm not a spy! We aren't even from this horrible place!"

The soldier pushed Luigi, hard. He skidded on his butt and tried to get back up. The soldier pushed him again.

"Stay down, you shi-geh slime. Your clean skin proves your guilt. You slipped out of your suits to spy on the kingdoms for your Ku-pah masters."

"No! We're from Brooklyn!"

"Hey!"

T'ao strode into the tent, knocking Luigi's tormentors aside.

"They shall not be harmed. Captain's orders. I am to watch them to ensure his orders are kept to the letter."

"The fucking spy hit me."

"He is no spy. I am convinced of that. Get out of here."

The thugs cleared out of the tent, leaving T'ao and the brothers alone.  
"I'm sorry."

"What was wrong with them? Why do they hate us?"

"You are untouched by the fungal blooms. That is very rare; only the wealthy can avoid them or afford the surgery necessary to purge them from their bodies, and the shi-geh traitors. The Ku'pah have a cure to the plague which they administer to the traitors as payment."

"I see. But isn't it obvious that we aren't from around here?"

"Your story isn't so easy to believe. It's not every day that strangers from another world just fall out of the sky."

Luigi sighed.

"You're right. But where does that leave us? If they didn't believe you…"  
"You are to be held as prisoners of war in the meantime. The Captain will come to talk to you and decide if you are telling the truth."

"What about Mario? If he doesn't get help soon, he'll die!"

"There's nothing we can do about it. I told you."

"I don't believe you!"

"After all I did to help you? I could have let you two die. Maybe I should have."


	12. Chapter 12

T'ao stormed out of the tent. Luigi regretted his words. He tried to follow T'ao but there were guards at the tent flaps who would not let him pass. He slumped onto the ground beside his brother and waited.

And waited. The Captain took his time. Luigi remembered how hungry he was, how thirsty. His hands itched. He stank of sweat and salt and blood and piss, for hadn't he pissed himself more than once? He was so afraid. Everything in this world was ruined, dangerous. Even these people didn't trust them, and they hadn't done anything. They were just lost.

He was asleep when the Captain came, his head resting on his brother's chest. Someone kicked him in the side.

"Wake up, shi-geh."

Luigi looked at the Captain. He was short; most of the soldiers had seemed short, even on their raptors. His coat and cloak were cleaner than most, his armor polished and un-dented. He was a solemn, mustachioed man in his fifties. His growths were not as severe as T'aos, but they pulled the corners of his mouth down in a perpetual frown. Luigi scowled at the man, trying to look unafraid.

"I'm not a traitor."

"That's what T'ao says. He's a good soldier. That doesn't mean he's a good judge of character."

"And you are?"

"You've got a mouth. What comes out of it will decide your case."

He walked over to the unconscious brother.

"This one doesn't have a mouth at all. I hear he's sick."

"Yes he is. And if you don't help him he's going to die."

"Hmm."

The Captain knelt over Mario, turned his head in his hands. He peeled back his eyelids, looked at the marks on his skin. He looked in his mouth like a horse breeder.

"To be honest… something could be done."

"Really?"

"Hold on. Something could be done if we were in the capital, but we aren't there. We have a sawbones, but he's not equipped for this kind of surgery. He might be able to do something about your hands, but it'll hurt. A lot."

"My hands?"

Luigi looked at them. They had been itching, and he saw that the skin had broken open in half a dozen places. Tiny pale pustules dotted his hands.

"Your brother's should surface soon. The doc would do more harm than good digging them out. Your brother is going to be badly deformed. He may go insane, or turn into a mindless gümbah. These are facts. All we can do is ensure he is comfortable."

"You haven't done a very good job of that!"

Luigi swung at the Captain, but the man stepped to one side. He twisted Luigi's arm behind his back.

"You're right. Let's get down to business. You and your brother are just walking around in the mushroom forest. You're untouched by the spores. You are 'pursued' by a gang of shi-ge. You meet T'ao and ask a bunch of idiot questions. You decide to tag along to our merry little camp. Obviously not the best of spies, are you?"

He did not let up his grip the whole time. Luigi's arm felt like it was on fire, and black dots started to swim across his eyes.

"Now that alone would convince me you aren't spies. Just idiots. But this story you have concocted, that you're from some other world called Brook-land, is completely ludicrous. You think that you can convince us that you are insane, that you should be pitied, trusted because you don't know any better. And you sell our movements to the Ku-pah."

"Th-that's not… not it at all…."

"Aye. And if its not… that raises an entirely different sort of question. A question that scares the crap out of me. How can there be another world than this? How can you just 'fall' into ours?"

"We… oh god, we've been thinking the same th-thing ourselves. P-please st-stop hurting me!"

He let go. Luigi sobbed with relief, rubbing his twisted arm.

"Tell me more. If you really are from another world, you have a story there. Tell me who you were, what you did, what it was like."

"How will that prove it to you?"

"That'll be up to you. Tell me your story."

Luigi thought hard. What to say? What would help?

"We're from Brooklyn. That's a part of a city, New York City. It's in the United States of America."

He looked at the Captain, judging his expression. He had never heard of those places.

"We lived there our whole lives… up to now. Our parents are dead."

"My condolences."

"They didn't do much, honestly. Mario has looked out for me my whole life."

He was tripping over his words. He took a deep breath and continued.

"We were on our own for a long time. We've done a lot of odd jobs. We were carpenters, construction workers, demolitionists. Mario toyed with the idea of getting a medical degree at one point, but that was more of a dream than anything. We ended up as plumbers."

"Plumbers? You work with lead?"

"Huh? No, I don't know… we work with sinks, toilets. Water."

The Captain scratched his chin.

"I see. I think I know what you mean. But how did you get here?"

Luigi tried to think back to their last job. It was only yesterday, but it seemed so far away from the bitter reality of the Kingdom.

"We were looking for a blockage in the sewers. We found it. It was… I don't know what it was. Black. It was so dark it hurt to look at. And then we fell, sucked down a pipe…"

The Captain flinched.

"What? What did you say? A Pipe? You know of Pipes?"

Luigi didn't know why the Captain was so agitated all of a sudden.

"Sure. Pipes. Metal tubes with water, waste. Stuff like that. A sewer is like a big pipe."

"The Pipes have always been here. They are in all nations; if one can navigate their maze, they can travel freely across the land. No wonder you have come here."

It made as much sense as anything Luigi could fathom.

"So do you believe me now?"

"I must. But I do not know what to do with you now. If you were a spy, I would have had you executed. I could let you go about your way, but you would not make it far in this blighted land. So I must detain you. But as a prisoner of war? As a guest? I must think on the manner."

He strode towards the tent flaps and turned to point at the prostrate Mario.

"I will allow your brother to live for now. But I assure you; if he could speak, he would beg for death. It would be a mercy."

The brothers were left alone. The guards did not speak to Luigi or allow him to leave the tent. After some time, one of them brought them a meal of black bread and water. Luigi gobbled down his portion, but could not convince his brother to eat. He paced around the tent for hours, restless, afraid. Would they ever find peace in this world? Would they ever go home? He tortured himself with questions. Mario mumbled in his half-sleep, wordless exclamations that wrenched Luigi's heart. He collapsed into a nightmare filled slumber.


	13. Chapter 13

He was awoken by an alarum of shouts and shrieking beasts. Luigi scrambled towards the tent flaps, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"What's going on," he called to the guards.

Their swords were drawn. One of them shoved Luigi back into the tent.

"Stay put, damn you!"

"Tell me what's happening!"

"The thrice-damned Ku'pah discovered our scouts. They are coming."

The guards ignored his protests, his questions. He shut up. Something had to be done; anything was better than waiting.

"A weapon. I need a weapon."

He scanned the contents of the tent. Bedrolls and soiled clothes. Nothing he could use. He rushed to the wall of the tent opposite the entrance. He pulled up the edge of the canvas, peering out into the camp. Men rushed about on foot and yoh'shii-back. They brandished lances and sabers, hefted oaken-hafted war hammers, picks, and axes. The Captain whirled on his yellow steed, trying to get the men into a semblance of order.

There was great shout and clashing of metal that echoed through the mushroom stalks, an inhuman battle-cry that sent shivers up his spine. They poured out of the mushrooms in a rush, a raiding party. There were shi'geh in that mob, bulky in their costumes, waving swords and spears to menace the riders. The others must have been the Ku'pah. They could not possibly be human. They were bipeds, yes, but the gray armor they wore betrayed their alien physiognomy. They were hunched over at the waist and their legs were short and bent. They dragged armored tails behind them that scraped and sparked off of stones and their gauntlets had only four fingers. They carried swords and hammers, cruelly spiked maces, and, of all things, sharply curved boomerangs that they hurled into the camp in a volley. They were razor sharp. Luigi watched in horror as a rider tumbled from his mount, a boomerang embedded in his chest. One of them sliced through the wall of the tent above Luigi's head. It stuck in the tent pole with a thunk! that scared him out of his wits.

After an opening barrage of spears, boomerangs, and hammers, the Ku'pah crashed into the First Riders in a savage melee. The riders had the advantage of their ferocious steeds. The yoh'shiis savaged the unarmored shi'geh, throwing them with their powerful tails, slashing them with their spiked feet, tearing arms and heads with mouths like bear traps.

But the Ku'pah were armored in heavy plate, protected from slashing claw and biting teeth. They fought in groups, hacking at the yoh'shii's legs, disemboweled them, knocked the riders from their saddles. A man on foot had almost no chance against a Ku'pah soldier. Swords glanced off of helms and pauldrons and spears could gain no purchase. Hammers could break their plating, but there was little hope of a dismounted rider to land a blow when the Ku'pah had so many weapons against them. Their bodies were weapons. They battered men with their gauntlets. They smashed them to the ground with the weight of their bodies. Their armor was studded with sharp spikes and studs which they used with brutal efficiency. Luigi could not tell who was winning, did not even know how many were fighting on either side. He knew that he had to act.

He moved away from the tent wall, remembering the boomerang. He realized he would not be able to withdraw it from the wood without cutting himself. He grabbed a couple of dirty shirts from the ground and wrapped them around his hands to protect them, then yanked the boomerang out of the pole. It was razor sharp but light, and he didn't think it would be much of a weapon. Better than nothing.

There was a shout outside the tent. Luigi rushed to the flaps. His guardians were fighting against a Ku'pah soldier. One of them kept trying to get behind the lizard, but the creature's thrashing tail kept him at bay. Their swords sparked and clashed off of the sturdy armor as they barely danced out of the way of their opponents blows. Luigi jogged around, not sure if he should jump in to help or if he would just trip them up. The Ku'pah launched a furious blow at his tormentors. His mace whizzed over the sentries' heads as they counterattacked. One of their swords skidded off his helmet, but the other stuck fast in between two plates at the lizard's armpit. It keened miserably and fell from this mortal wound. The sword stuck fast, and as it's owner tried to pry it out of the wounded monster's body, the other guard noticed Luigi watching.

"What are you doing?! Yo-"

His cry was cut short as another Ku'pah barreled into him from the side. He fell under the full weight of his attacker, completely defenseless to the barbs and studs of the enemy's armor. The Ku'pah bashed his face in with a heavy gauntlet. The other guard, still trying to pull out his sword, shouted in anger and anguish for his fallen companion. He pulled a knife from his jacket and charged, senseless in his rage. The lizard seized the hapless man in a bone-crushing hug, grinding him between plates and spikes. Luigi was spurred to action. He lifted the boomerang and brought it down on the lizard's head with all his might. It dashed off of the brim of the helmet and he dropped it. He had cut himself badly. Blood trickled from beneath the bindings on his right hand. His vision blurred and he fell on his butt. The blood-splattered monster loomed over him. It chuckled beneath its visor at his pathetic attack and reached for his throat.

"LUIGI!"

Mario charged out of the tent, tackling the Ku'pah. They tumbled in the dirt. Mario got to his knees as the Ku'pah struggled to right itself. Mario threw a haymaker into the lizard's visor, skinning his knuckles and doing nothing to his adversary. He needed something to break through the armor. A heavy log, half-burned in a fire, was the first thing to catch his eye and he scrambled to reach it. The Ku'pah clanked after him, knife in hand. Mario reached the log and swung it like a baseball slugger. It dashed off of the soldier's pauldrons, against his helmet. He had to hit harder, swing faster…


	14. Chapter 14

The Ku'pah stabbed him in the chest.

Mario jerked away, stunned. The knife was still in his chest, just to the right of his heart. He was too surprised to feel pain; how could this happen? How could he die in such a way?

"Bastard!"

Luigi stabbed the Ku'pah behind the knee with one of the guard's swords. The soldier turned clumsily to defend itself. Mario grabbed him by the arm and wrestled him to the ground. Adrenaline raced through his limbs. His nerves were screaming. He straddled the lizard's chest and picked up a stone from the ground. He hammered it on his enemy's visor, once, twice, again, again, until it was twisted and broken. He ripped it off revealing the pointed snout and yellow eyes of the soldier. Blood trickled from its nose, but it hissed and bared sharp teeth. It slapped at him with heavy hands, scoring deep cuts in his arms and sides. Mario plunged his hand into the helmet, mindless to the snapping teeth of his adversary. He closed his fist on the bridge of the Ku'pah's nose, his thumb seeking out an eye. He jammed it into the soft organ, grinding it in deeper and deeper. The soldier gibbered in agony, bucking and kicking under his weight. He pushed with all his might, and the bucking stilled to twitching and finally nothing. Mario pulled out his thumb with a pop and fainted.

Out of nowhere came men in yellow cloaks, on foot and on yoh'shii. They surrounded the brothers with drawn swords. One of them hobbled over to Luigi.

"Thank goodness you are alive," he gasped.

"T'ao! You're hurt!"

He held a hand over a cut on his leg, and his turban hung in bloody tatters. He gestured with a blood-slick sword.

"I got a nice nick here, and I think a few of my spores may have burst, but I gave out what I got. They're falling back."

Mario groaned. Luigi saw the knife in his chest.

"Oh my god, I didn't think it was that bad. T'ao, we have to help him!"

"How did he get out of the tent? Don't touch that knife! It's right next to his heart. I can't believe that he's even alive…"

Mario's eyes flicked open. He gurgled something, spat out a gob of blood, and whispered into Luigi's ear.

"Help me pull this out. I'm not d-dying with this hunk of metal in my chest."

Luigi nodded, sobbing. He helped Mario close his hands around the hilt.

"One… two… pull!"

The knife came out. Mario howled. Luigi expected him to die at once, his blood pooling out with each fluttering heartbeat. But that didn't happen. There was blood, yes, but it was sluggish. He realized it was congealing before his eyes. All of Mario's injuries, the punctures on his arms, his skinned knuckles, were scabbed over.

"Impossible."

T'ao leaned over the wounded man. He tore off a clean part of his cloak and began to tie it around his chest.

"His wound is clotting somehow. And his spores are gone."

"What?"

It was true. His skin was still pale from sickness but the red blooms that had flowered under his skin had vanished. T'ao ran his fingers over the reddened dagger.

"The blood is gummy. It feels like glue. Is this normal in your world?"

"Not at all. Look at my hand."

Luigi offered his cut hand. T'ao examined the cut, noted the blood pooling in lines. Luigi felt faint looking at it.

"You're right. I can't explain this. Let's move him back into the tent."

They carried him inside and set him onto a bedroll. Mario was semi-conscious but peaceful. He looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep.

"I'll get the doctor to look at him when I can, but he will be very busy. We have a lot of wounded men and animals."

T'ao started to turn away.

"Wait! I want to help. I feel… I feel…"

"You aren't responsible for this. And no one will think you were after your brother killed that Ku'pah. But you may come, if your stomach can handle it."


	15. Chapter 15

The battlefield was unbearable. Men and beasts lay tangled together in death while the wounded cried feebly at the injustice of it all. The surviving riders picked through the ruin of their camp, freeing the wounded from beneath their dead steeds and cutting the throats of crippled yoh'shiis. The doctor worked on the wounded while wounded himself, stitching wounds with red-soaked hands. Luigi asked him how many had been lost.

"We had something less than a hundred riders this morning. Now we have forty-two fit and sixteen wounded, four of them badly. I don't how we'll get to Rodan's domain."

"What happened to the Captain?"

"Dead."

The surgeon smeared the blood on his forehead and went back to work. Luigi was left to his own devices. He picked his way through the mangled tents and smoldering campfires, aghast at the aftermath of the fight. He had never realized before how easy it was for it all to end, and how horribly! A rider lay in a crimson puddle with his head bashed in by a hammer. A shi'geh warrior had been bisected from crotch to shoulder. It was so horrible he could not look away, and he tripped over something that swore at him. He froze. Expecting some half-dead horror, he looked behind him and saw that it was someone trapped under a collapsed tent. He hesitated. What if it was a trap? The thing called out for help so piteously it moved his heart. He found an abandoned knife and used it to cut open the canvas. A man tumbled out of the hole.

He was a shi'geh. He had lost his mask in the fight, and Luigi saw that his face was free of blemishes. The shi'geh looked at his pallid features and ragged overalls and immediately decided he was not a threat.

"Did we win?"

"No. You did not."

"Shit. Who are you then?"

"Luigi. I'm not from around here."

"Evidently. I'm Shriver." He squinted at Luigi more carefully.

"Eh wot! You aren't infected with the rot! Why are you hanging round these fungus-faces? Let's get out of here, you and me, eh?"

He moved towards Luigi, hands held wide. Was that menace in his step? Luigi leveled his knife at Shriver's chest. The shi'geh recoiled in fear.

"I cannot. You should, ah, you should…"

"Then let me go. You don't know what they will do to me, do you? You have no idea."

Shriver fell to his knees with his hands clasped before him.

"You hafta let me go, you just hafta!"

"I-"

There was a shout of anger and alarm. Riders rushed past Luigi to the cowering shi'geh.

"Fucking bastard!"

One of them kicked Shriver in the face. He curled into a ball under their blows, which fell so fast and furiously that Luigi was disgusted.

"Stop it! You'll kill him," Luigi shouted.

"Fuck off, you scut. What do you think he is?"

The rider turned away from him with disdain. Luigi grabbed his cloak and pulled. The soldier tangled himself in the yellow fabric and tripped. His friends stopped kicking Shriver and turned to Luigi.

"You tall shit." One of them pulled his knife.

"Now wait a minute-"

"Hold there!"

"Stop! Put that blade away!"

A group of mounted men rode up broke up the ugly scene. The leader stood up in his saddle and announced himself.

"Hold now, I say! I am the Lieutenant; I am in command now. What is the meaning for this scrum?"

"This bloody idiot was about to let this shi'geh bastard go, and then he attacked us."

"They were going to kill him!"

"And what were he and his mates trying to do to us not 'alf an hour ago?"

Luigi flushed. This wasn't his world. He wasn't used to thinking like these people. The shi'geh were collaborators with an inhuman enemy. How could they not despise them?

"At the very least… take him prisoner. Don't just beat him to death like some sort of animal!"

"He is an animal."

"That will be all, soldier. The stranger has a point. Take this man prisoner."

The soldiers grumbled but obeyed there superior. They dragged Shriver away.

"I wish to speak with you, Luigi-of-Brook-Land," said the Lieutenant.

He was thin and tired looking, but his eyes were bright with curiosity.

"We have not met yet. I am called Glowse."

"Glad to meet you," Luigi lied.

"I have some issues with you and your brother. Do not worry," he said, seeing Luigi stiffen, "we will not abandon you. You will accompany us to Rodan's domain as planned, but the situation has changed. There is the matter of your brother."

"Is he-"

"Alive, of course, and that is the issue. The doctor saw to him and agreed with Rider T'ao; there was no-way that he could have survived that injury. He should have died within moments, but instead he defeated a Ku'pah in single combat and lived. I think there is some magic here we do not understand."

"I can't help you. I've never seen anything like this before."

"I have to believe you on account of your own injuries. But that raises only more questions. When we get to Rodan we will try to find the truth of this."

"So even if we wanted to leave, we now have no choice."

"Correct. As for leaving, we must do that soon. The Ku'pah will surely return with reinforcements. We can only tarry long enough for the wounded to be cared for and the yoh'shiis to feed. And in that time we must teach you and your brother how to ride."


	16. Chapter 16

Luigi went to see Mario in his tent. They had to share it with some of the more seriously wounded men. Their moaning was heart-rending.

"Hey bro. Are you feeling…"

"What do you think? I had a knife in my chest."

Mario sighed, and said more gently

"It's been rough, hasn't it? I don't know what to do anymore."

He hugged his knees to his chest and winced.

"All I know, Mario, is that these people are helping us. They'll lead us to safety and we can think about all of this. Try to figure it out."

"Not like we have a choice. Those… what are they? Turtles? It doesn't seem like we can just go with them, does it?"

Luigi thought of Shriver. He didn't know what his rescuers were doing to them, but he was sure it wasn't good. He tried to push his guilty thoughts away.

"The Lieutenant says we have to leave soon, before they come back. He says you and me will have to learn to ride a yoh'shii. Do you think you can in your condition?"

"I'll have to. Help me up."

Mario wobbled a little, but he could walk. A soldier met them with a green yoh'shii.

"Sorry boys, but you'll have to share. We've barely enough of 'em as it is. Lucky for you this one's got a belly full of meat. She'll carry you a ways."

Mario scowled at the blood-stained lizard. He had seen T'ao's steed feast before, but this was somehow worse. A scrap of yellow cape stuck to its tongue.

"You let them eat your dead? That's disgusting."

"What else can they eat? The Ku'pahs have poisoned the land with their foul mushrooms, and we barely have enough rations to feed ourselves. They 'et each other more than anything else in these dark days. Now, will you stop moralizing and let me get on with it?"

He gestured towards the saddle.

"You sit up on there and stick your feet in these bits what we call stirrups. You ken?"

"Yeah, I know what stirrups are. You ever heard of a horse?"

"Not a clue. You'll have to sit back-a-back, yeh see."

"How do you, uh, steer it," Luigi queried. "I don't see a bridle or anything like that."

"Heh, you may need a bridle for a bloody stupid ostro, but a yoh'shii's a clever beasty. They hunt in packs, see, so yours'll stay with the others as well as it can. When you need to 'steer' it, you give it a little kick on the haunches to turn it. If it en't too noisy, you can direct them by voice as well, and if anything else goes wrong, you can always just point. See here. Oy! Get a move-on over there!"

The yoh'shii sauntered over to the point where it had been directed.

"Come back ere now!"

It did.

"Good beasty." He patted it's flank. "Not 'ard at all." He turned to leave, then remembered something.

"Oh yeah. The Lieutenant says I'm supposed to give you these."

He handed them two bundled up cloaks, yellow like the Rider's.

"The nights get cold, and your clothes are getting a bit ragged."

That was an understatement. Mario's shirt was in tatters after his fights and his chest was bare save for his bandages.

"An' these. My mind's a sieve today."

Two respirators. Luigi had the uneasy feeling these articles had been scavenged off the battlefield, but he couldn't complain, could he? He'd rather suck on a dead man's mask then inhale a cloud of spores.

"Get ready then. We'll be gone in the hour."


	17. Chapter 17

What was left of the tents were dismantled with shocking speed. The yoh'shiis were rounded up and saddled, satiated after their feast of carrion. What little they left behind, the scraps of cloth and battered plates of dead Ku'pah, were already sprouting tiny mushrooms seeking any source of nourishment.

"That's one of the hardest things," the doctor said to Mario. "Keeping the spores out of wounds. Those toadstools feast on flesh and worm themselves deep into your skin. But you know that, don't you?" Mario closed his cloak more tightly. Luigi looked at the small growths on the back of his hands with dread.

"Don't you worry, my boy. Those aren't so bad yet. I can cut them out in ten minutes tops, when we find a place to rest."

"Won't that hurt?"

"Aye, especially since I used up all my alcohol."

Luigi jammed his hands into his armpits. The doctor laughed.

"At least you don't have 'em all over your face… your back… on your unmentionables. I've lanced 'em all over the body. It's a mighty sore thing to have to live with. Count yourself lucky." He scratched his own blooms and shuffled away to help the wounded onto their mounts. Mario did not notice two of the more seriously injured men from the tent; he hoped they had been dead when their comrades carried them away into the forest. He had his doubts.

The ragtag remnants assembled under their banner, an orange star on a white field. The Lieutenant addressed them all somberly.

"We have failed in our duty to stem the tide, men, but feel no shame. The enemy is still as strong as we feared and marching ever westward. We must alert the Monarchies of the continued threat on Rodan's domain. We will ride as one along our back trail; we have no time to send out scouts. We must push through any threat we may encounter. It will be a dangerous but necessary journey. We carry knowledge that may be of some use to our armies."

His gaze fell on the forlorn brothers.

"We have a chance to help the innocent."

Some of the Riders chuckled. A few snorted. Luigi was just glad that these killers would help them. They didn't have to like them. Glowse took up the banner.

"Into the wood! Ride for King and country!"

The lizards loped away with quickening strides. Luigi clung to his beast's neck while Mario locked his arms around his middle. T'ao rode up alongside them laughing.

"You look like limpets. Lean back and let the stirrups do their work!"

"Easy if we weren't sharing a saddle," Mario grumbled. They had a stirrup each and it was all they could do to keep from falling off.

It was rough going at first as they traveled through dense forest. The Riders were experienced (as was to be expected) and familiar with their mounts. They leaped over downed trees and wove through tangled knots of dripping toadstools with ease. Luigi and Mario kept up (they didn't have much choice; the "clever beasty" had a mind of its own) with the pack but had a miserable time. Their steed (Mario christened her The Bitch) seemed to enjoy dragging them through the thickest patches of the forest and muck-filled streams. When they stopped, hours after nightfall, the brothers fell from the saddle in relief. They were both saddle-sore and exhausted.

"It is always rough at first," T'ao said amiably, "but you will get used to it."

"We have to," Luigi agreed.

"Where are we going to sleep," Mario asked.

"Here, on the ground. We don't have time to set up the tents, but feel free to grab a sheet. Make sure you keep covered and wear your masks when you go to bed."

They huddled together in the half-dark of the luminescent forest, gnawing on trail bread and dreaming of home. The Riders were sullen and watchful, and the yoh'shiis gathered in a knot and cooed softly in their sleep. Luigi gazed up at the stars through a gap in the canopy.

"Even the stars are different here."

Mario grunted.

"How can I tell? Orion ought to be there. There's a planet out there, see? That reddish star."

"Hmm."

"It makes me wonder where this is. Is this another planet? Some sort of… what do they call it… another dimension like they have in the science fiction magazines?"

"I don't know. Why does it matter?"

"So we can find a way home."

Mario laughed, low and bitterly.

"We ain't going home, bro. Wasn't that obvious from the start? One minute we were walking over shit, and then we fell right into it. Hard."

He rolled away from Luigi. The younger brother hesitated.

"Mario… are you all right?"

Mario was silent for a long time.

"I hate that question. You are so damn stupid sometimes."

"I-I- didn't mean…"

"You know what I'm thinking about right now, Luigi? Why. Aren't. I. Dead. That's more important to me now than the fucking stars."

They slept fitfully for a few hours before T'ao shook them awake. They rode all day at a punishing rate. The yoh'shiis were still glutted from their ghoulish feast and strode tirelessly with their loads. With her double load, The Bitch kept to the back of the pack with the pack-yoh'shiis. Luigi saw a red coat among the pack animals and he managed to steer her towards the crimson spot. It was Shriver, tied to his mount and watched by two guards. When Luigi got closer, he could see that his face was mess of purple bruises.

"Um, hello Shriver."

The guards glowered at them but did nothing. The shi'geh cracked a sardonic smile.

"Good day, Luigi. Lovely day, innit?"

His laugh ended in a hacking cough.

"Who's this then?"

"Oh. My brother, Mario."

Mario hadn't spoken to Luigi all day. He regarded Shriver with a withering glare.

"Nice't meet you as well, sourchops. You the one got stabbed in the heart?"

"Luigi, why are we talking with this scum?"

"Friendly one en't you? Luigi is the fellow what got me caught, Marry-o. I'm not sure what he wants either."

"I just… I want to know about you. What's your story? What's your take on all this?"

"My story? You want to hear… en't that rich!" He cackled long and loud.

"Mine's the same as most, Lu. I lived in a village in the country. We paid our taxes and worked the fields for our king. We toiled for him, spent our lives in his employ because he said he would protect us. You know what happened when the Ku'pah came? He didn't do anything. Our king abandoned us to the toadstools, like all the other rotten monarchs. When the Ku'pahs came to our village, they didn't kill anyone. They asked us if we wanted to live like animals or join their cause. What was I to do?"

One of his guards cuffed him on the back of the head.

"That's enough, scum."

"Right, right. Have ponder about your new friends then, Lu."

As Luigi was eating that night, T'ao came over to him.

"Tullius told me you were talking to the prisoner."

"Yes, I wanted to hear his side of things. I'm trying to learn about this world, to understand more…" he trailed off. T'ao was shaking with rage.

"You didn't think to ask me? Are we that repulsive to you?"

He jabbed his finger into a growth on his face.

"I don't get it, Luigi. I saved you and your brother, and you mope out here in the darkness. Why won't you come around the fire? Why do you want to hear HIS side of the story?!"

He grabbed Luigi by the collar. Their faces were so close they might have been kissing.

"It seems to me that you two almost died because of men like him. I've killed five men for your sake. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"What the hell are you doing?"

Mario came from out of the darkness zipping up his fly. He pushed the two apart.

"And here comes the big brother, always ready to jump into action!"

"Jesus Mario, don't hit him! STOP! EVERYONE STOP!"

Luigi interposed himself between them.

"T'ao, I'm sorry. We wouldn't have made it this far without you. The reason I asked Shriver is… oh hell, I feel sorry for him. He's a man just like you or me, isn't he?"

"He's a filthy shi'geh traitor… but I understand. You feel empathy for him because you have not seen what his like have done under the Ku'pah. In your world, are there not wars?"

"Of course there are."

"But you have never fought, been forced to suffer amid disorder and death?"

"No. We haven't."

"You are like children," he said, holding up a finger to cut off Mario's indignant retort, "innocent of the world's miseries. You are adrift, not sure if what you do is the right thing. Let me teach you, Luigi and Mario. Let me be your guide as I was on the day you came into our darkening world."

He led them towards the campfire with a final warning.

"I cannot offer you peace, security, even hope. These are hopeless times for the Kingdoms. But we can teach you how to resist. I can tell you about how all this came to be."


	18. Chapter 18

The entire company assembled around the roaring fire to listen. T'ao stood ramrod straight, his eyes taking on a faraway sheen. In a surprisingly clear voice, he began:

High o'er the Land in darkness of Old Night  
The Stars wrought for themselves a stellar way  
Of astral fire and stardust bright to reign  
And shine down from above this barren world.  
They saw the Land was good and choice for life  
But the fire of their celestial forms would  
Scorch and blacken that what they did yearn most.  
So from the vantage of their height a work  
Did they begin crafting from their very dust  
A race of Men as their stewards instead.  
They made for them all things that Man desired  
Food to eat, light to see with throne'd Sun  
Proud yoh'shii's and gentler beasts to care for  
And seeing the kingdoms of men arise  
Did turn away from the Land contented.

Beyond the Land, beyond the golden sun  
And astral way afire there woke in rage  
Old Night, cheated of its rightful reign oe'r  
All. Ne'er did it wish for light and life  
And with anger fierce did smote the goodly  
Sun and broke one half forever and thus was  
Night fallen first oe'r quaking, newborn Man.  
Turning from their contemplation at this  
Most fearsome uproar, the Stars did battle with  
This most ancient of primord'l foes and in  
A clash that broke the very road did smight  
Him. With a final shriek Old Night fell down.

With him crash'd the broken road unto the  
Eastern country and brought it unto ruin.  
From then on that land was Old Night's dungeon.  
From his sulf'rous domain, the Great Enemy  
Never more rose to battle o'er the Land  
But wrought more cunning torments gains't good Man.  
He bred a secret race of twisted spawn  
To do His mischief in the Land and ruin  
It for Man-kind; thus was the Ku'pah born.  
Out they came from their brimstone prison house  
With steel and fire did they prey on proud Man  
And brought death forevermore to the Land.  
In those days of vanisht hope and terror  
Came out of a foreign land a hero  
Clad in red a star-blessed King was he  
Who brought Man from the brink of doomed fate.  
With gilded armies he cleansed the Land  
Of the loathsome Ku'pah hordes as a broom  
Swept them back into their curs'd barren waste.  
His glorious line ruled the Land then on.

When he ended, not an eye was dry among the riders. This was an ancient tale, one they had heard from childhood. It was their genesis.  
"Of course, that is not where the story ends. The Red King's children tried to rule the Land as he had intended, but each generation faced new trials. Famine, war, plague, and the ever-looming threat of the Ku'pah rent the Land into the seven Kingdoms until the time of our great-great-grandsires. Then the lizards came in numbers unseen in centuries. The seven Kingdoms were disjointed and barely forced the Ku'pah back into the shadow-lands. It was decided that a true heir of the Red King must rule all Kingdoms, and so King Graham of Karpathi became the first High King. He led an army of all the Kingdoms to smash the Ku'pah once and for all, and for a time we thought their threat was gone forever. What was left of them were reduced to tribes, squabbling over cinders."

The dreamlike look in T'aos eyes fell away. The splendor of myth faded in the light of grim reality.

"On the coronation of our High King Bram, a rumor came from the east of a warlord touched by the power of Old Night. No one could have possibly believed such superstition and King Bram devoted himself to travel. He left the business of the court to his sons and daughter and journeyed through the Kingdoms for many years. The Kings of men continued to prosper, ignorant of the growing threat. Nine years ago, the Ku'pah crossed our border. They were united in purpose for the first time in an age; no more were they mere raiders. They crossed the desert sands of Gog and sacked King Aether's palace. Our armies moved to stop them piecemeal, misbelieving the rumors. The enemy unleashed their sorcery as our banners marched through the southron valleys. The spores took root in the soil and flesh. The mushrooms transformed the Land into a maze and our men were lost. Thousands died in agony as spores burst from their bodies, killing them outright or transfiguring them into gümbah monsters. The armies of man were crushed for the first time in centuries."

"Learning of this fearsome threat, the Kings of men unleashed their forces full. Proud airships plied the sky above the columns of gold-clad riders and pike-armed legions. They set the 'shrooms aflame to force the Ku'pah out into the field. They came in numbers gross and powerful, a steel-clad horde heedless of the cannon-fire of the proud Ascathlon, flagship of the fleet. It would have carried the day alone if the Ku'pahs had not their own ships, which rose out of hills unseen. No one could have imagined that they had the knowledge or the means to build a single ship, let alone an entire armada. The Ascathlon fell in flames as the fleet of Man was scattered like sparrows before a hawk. Uncontested, the Ku'pah airwing rained death upon our armies. The carnage was incomprehensible. The greatest army in our history had been utterly destroyed. My father, my uncles, brothers… so many of our kin died thus"

Tears streamed from his eyes. Many of the riders were crying openly. This was no story; this was march of doom.

"The dark days started then. We have adapted to the Ku'pah's methods and horrible weapons, but it is not enough. One by one fell four Kingdoms of Man. King Aether, King Ramsus, King Loth, King Barandus, all lost to the wreck of war. The people of the Land flee before the crush or turn against us."

He fell silent. Luigi and Mario watched the faces of the riders, turned into masks of grief by spores and sorrow.

"Who is this warlord," he whispered.

"He is the Dragon, the King and Dark Lord of the Ku'pah. Bowser. He led the charge himself in the Battle of the Fall, a giant in armor blackened and crackling with eldritch power. He is the greatest sorcerer of the Ku'pah tribe and the mastermind of their campaign. He has seven children and they serve their father as his hands. They will not rest until the seven Kingdoms are destroyed."


	19. Chapter 19

AN: Hey all, this is a shortish chapter. Been pretty busy this weekend, but there's more on the way soon. Feel free to go look at the illustrated version on my deviantart profile (check my, uh, fanfic profile). Also, leave some reviews or something. Let me know what you think.

...

They slept by the fire that night, lulled to dreamless slumber by the heat and the new-found bonds of camaraderie. They were initiated. They knew the cause.

Luigi woke with a start as something roared far above the forest. He gagged on the stale air of his mask and pulled it off in panic.

"Put that back on!"

T'ao jammed the mask back on his face and fiercely tightened the straps.

"What-"

"An airship flew by overhead. It shook loose the spores with its passage. Cover yourself-"

"The yoh'shiis!"

Men tumbled half-asleep to cover the squalling animals. The spores, glowing in the light of the fire, were drifting blizzard-like from the gills far overhead. With that many spores, even the scales of the lizards were insufficient. T'ao and Luigi grabbed a corner of a tent and dragged it over to the pack. Other riders danced around the beasts trying to calm them, fearful of the lashing tails and razor claws as the animals shrilled in surprise at the passed airship.

"We can't get close enough!"

"Give me a corner," someone roared.

Mario hobbled over to them, clutching his stomach.

"Mario! Your wound…"

"Damn it! Give it to me!"

He grabbed the edge of the tent and pulled it out of their hands. He ran at the yoh'shiis and jumped. He crashed into a bull raptor, knocking it into the ground. It screamed in rage and snapped at his feet, but he had already jumped onto the back of the next animal, pulling the tent over them. He waded through waving necks and flashing teeth, balancing on shoulders and tails with adrenaline-fueled grace. He hurled another corner of the tent to men on the other side of the pack and bumbled his way out of the knot of animals. The Lieutenant jogged out of the dark.

"Tie up rocks in the corners of the tents and throw them over them! Goodness man, do you have a death wish?"

With the improvised weights, they were able to cover the animals. Some of the men were already cowering under their cloaks when The Bitch suddenly panicked and broke cover, running into the darkness. The spores were drifting just above her head. Mario plunged after her into the night.

"NO! Come back Mario!"

T'ao had to wrestle Luigi to the ground to keep him from running after his brother.

"No-o, not again, please not again…"

"Yeeha! Get on you big stupid shit!"

Mario rode the yoh'shii back towards the pack bareback, his legs locked in a deathgrip on its flank. He'd thrown his cape over the creatures' head and it crashed blindly into the other animals. Spores clung to his arms and face, but he grabbed the lizard by her neck and dragged her under the tent.

"Damn straight."

"God Mario, get under here! The spores!"

T'ao and Luigi seized him by the overalls and pulled him under the tent they shared with six others. They beat the spores from him.

"Shit! Stop it, I'm fine, I'm fine!"

Awestruck, they watched a single spore on the back of his hand. It melted into his hand, not even leaving a mark.

"That- that didn't hurt at all. Wait a… what…"

Mario tore at the bandages that covered his hairy chest.

"My wound is… it's gone."


	20. Chapter 20

The days became a routine of riding and stopping, riding and stopping, and while the brothers ended each day bow-legged and blistered, the schedule was supremely comforting. The company skirted the patch of green that Luigi had seen from the hill on the second day to conceal their movement. Luigi was disappointed but conceded that he would rather tramp through the noxious jungle than be bombed from the sky. At night, they ate and talked with the riders, about their lives, their families, what they thought about the wayward brothers. Most of the riders felt bad for them, they said, coming here from their home. Only a few of them still mistrusted them, including the soldiers that Luigi had fought with over Shriver. They were Glomps, Trouncher and Rimes, and they made time to throw the brothers dirty looks over the campfire.

Two days after the airship, T'ao came to them with a handful of swords.

"Here. You will need these. The Lieutenant said it would be 'ok' to give them to you."

They admired the heavy sabers and scabbards, the brass knuckle bows and war-nicked blades.

"Of course, you'll need to learn how to use them."

"I don't know about that, 'Toad'," Mario said waggishly. "I think I handled myself pretty well so far."

"Right, how did you end up with a knife in your chest again?"

Mario blushed furiously. He fingered the shallow scar on his chest.

"Seriously, you must learn how to defend yourself. You're not bad in a brawl, Mario, but you lack control. On the other hand, Luigi, you lack gusto. You have to face death with a sword in your hand and a song on your lips. Come now, pick up those sticks, and fight me!"

From then on, they suffered bruises as well as sore bottoms. T'ao sparred with them at least an hour every night. He spared them no injury or humiliation when it taught a lesson and forced them to try their hardest with aching muscles and sour tempers. He 'killed' them with sticks, trapped them in inescapable holds, threw them with ease over and over.  
"If the goddamn Ku'pah's don't kill us, he certainly will," Mario mumbled through a bloody nose.

Despite (or rather because) of this rough treatment, it got a little easier each day. They didn't have time for despair if they were too tired to think. Mario, always practical, found this preferable to existential pondering.

Luigi still found time to wonder. One night he excused himself from practice, confessing a need to relieve himself. He instead took a roundabout path around the camp, to the place where they kept Shriver. They had looped a rope around the base of a mushroom that was tied to his leg at the other end. His guards were dicing some distance off, so Luigi snuck closer and whispered

"Hello."

The shi'geh didn't even flinch.

"I saw you a ways off, so don't think the guards don't know you're here. Indulgent, they are." His bruises were fading but he still looked like a mess.

"I'm sorry if I bother you."

"No, pardon me. I forget you en't one of them, no matter how much you'an'they want you to be. You're innocent of their crimes, fer now."

He sighed and shrugged.

"I'm not normally open to reflection, but what else can you do in captivity? I'm just so tired of it all. You have no idea how tired I am. When they hang me it'll be a relief, I assure you."

Luigi apologized.

"Ack, don't mention it. Nice story T'ao told, wudden it? Like a poet he was. Reminds me of my school. We 'ad to learn that word for word. Every time you said it wrong you got punished. Can't tell you how many times that school marm smacked my fingers. Pain is a good education, Lu. Imagine how much we learned when the Ku'pah came."

He buried his head in his hands.

"What was I to do? I was a boy. I never knew no better, and then this. All of this just happened, and I was just one boy. How can one boy make a difference? Can you answer me that?"

"I'm feeling something like that right now."

"Oh, are you? You think there's some sort of fate at work here? That you and your brother are here for a reason?"

He laughed savagely. The guard's eyes flickred from their gaming, then rolled back to the dice.

"That's the stuff of fairy tales, Lu. And as you can see, this ain't no fairy tale."

...

"We are a day's ride from Rodan's Domain."

"Finally civilization," Mario laughed.

"Of a sort," T'ao replied. "King Rodan holds our southern flank. Most of his towns and villages have been abandoned to rot and ruin, and his castle has been assaulted many times. We will rest for a short while, then make our way for the capitol."

"Still, after all these dangers… it will be good to sleep in safety."

The end of this leg of their journey couldn't have come at a better time. The Riders and yoh'shiis were spent by violence and wearying travel. The feast of flesh had long been digested, the calories spent, and the yoh'shiis were subsisting off of a poor diet of monstrous bugs, carrion, and the rare pig-like creatures that roamed the mushroom fields. They had been forced to butcher two of the pack yoh'shii's to let the other animals eat. The rider's rations were running low. Mario and Luigi ate molded bread with a hunger that terrified them.

A fight broke out the night before. One of the unfriendly riders, Glomps, tried to take Shriver's meal away.

"He's a star-shunned shi'geh. Why should he eat when the bloody yoh'shiis are ettin each other?"

He cuffed the prisoner on the back of the head.

"Leave him alone! He's going to be killed; can't you just… just leave him be!"

Luigi was sore from sparring, but he had a length of wood and pent-up fury.

"Why do you have to be so cruel?"

Glomps snarled at him.

"You don't know what he done. He might'a done rape. He might'a done murder."

"But we don't know, and that's enough for me to pity him."

A heavy hand clapped down on Luigi's shoulder. Glomps' friend, Trouncher, hissed in his ear.

"I haven't forgotten what you did to me, you whiny shit. Pull my cape, will you? I'll pull you down, I will."

Luigi squirmed out of his grasp and swung his stick hard. Trouncher cursed and held his bruised shoulder.

"Back off. Or I'll belt you again."

"Thinks he's tough. We'll show you tough. C'mon Glomps."

The two men sulked away.

"Luigi to the rescue again. Funny, your brother never seems to show up when I'm in trouble."

"He's talking to T'ao. Asking him about the Stars."

"Oh? And why aren't you with him?"

"I just… I knew this would be the last time we could talk. Before…"

"They stretch my neck? Yeah, that does tend to put a cap on the ruminatin', doesn't it?"

They were silent for a few minutes, watching the men around the fire. Mario was telling some sort of story that had the riders laughing uproariously, probably one of his sexual conquests back in the States. Some stories were just universal.

"You notice how you don't quite fit in with that lot, like your brother? You wonder why that is?"

Luigi nodded slowly, but didn't answer. Shriver smirked and waved airily towards the men at the fire.

"You've got a brain n' y'know it. Your brother… he's muscle and brav'ry and charm. He doesn't say much, but when he does, he can find a way to fit in with the salt o' the earth. You, on the other hand, are a dreamer. You got questions and they bother you. You don't want to just get along; you want to do the right thing. I think I got you pinn'd for sure."

Luigi regarded him somberly.

"Have you done those things?"

"S'cuse me?"

"What he said. Have you done terrible things?"

"Well… I can't believe you'd lissen to that-"

"I've got a brain, didn't you say? I have questions that bother me, and when something's been said it can't be unsaid. What have you done, Shriver?"

The shi'geh seemed to deflate within his grubby longcoat. His face was a tragic mask of bruises and betrayal.

"A'right. I see how it is. An I'll tell you like I tole them after they beat me bloody that first day. I done terrible things to stay alive. I done murder. I betrayed my people. But what have you done to treat me any different? You remember that Ku'pah, the one that your brother killed? Scrambled his brain with his thumb, how can you forget? I knew him. It's hard at first, to know them. They all look the same in their armor, you know? But I knew him. Went by Farkist. Not a bad bloke, all things considering. Had a mate back home with an egg on the way. Tell your brother to think about that, and leave me be."

Luigi, troubled, went to bed beside a stump and tried to think of home. He could not recall his address. That scared him a lot more than he would have thought.

...

The next day brought rain. Sheets of it poured down between the mushroom caps and drenched the miserable riders. Thunder boomed and spooked the yoh'shiis, and the riders had to keep a firm grip on their saddles.

Mario and Luigi were, as usual, at the very back of the pack. Their animal (it had transitioned from The Bitch into Baby sometime after Mario saved her) had become slightly more manageable, but now it was beginning to flag under their combined weight.

"Maybe we ought to get off every once and a while and, I dunno…"

"I don't think so, Luigi. We wouldn't be able to keep up."

"Mario… I've got a… question. You, uh, re-… what were you and T'ao talking 'bout last night?"

"Heh. Toady was telling me about Star Road. Kind of seems like Heaven, the way he explains it. Funny, I never thought they might 'believe' in something here. They don't have a Jesus, do they?"

He genuflected semi-seriously, looking up at a gap in the mushroom caps.

"Mamma would be so proud of us, wouldn't she? Riding a lizard through a mushroom patch, and she'd just go on about how she just knew I wasn't any good."

He chuckled dryly. Luigi hemmed and hawed and finally spat it out.

"Have you been thinking about home? I've been trying, but its getting harder."

"Know what you mean. I figure it doesn't matter so much, now that we're stuck here."

"But you can't-"

"I know we're stuck here. I asked him about Pipes, too. There ain't many left that go very far, and they aren't mapped anymore. Most people who go in Pipes never come back. The way I figure it, it's better to stick with what we 'know' than have to do the same thing all over again someplace that might be even worse."

"Well, that still doesn't explain the forgetfulness."

"We're adapting. Why would we need to know which train goes to Time Square, or who the president is, if we are stuck here, trying to survive?"

They rode in silence for a ways. Baby cooed softly at a thunderclap, and Luigi ran his hand down her neck to calm her.

"What were you telling them that made them laugh?"

"Oh. That. You remember that one girl I was dating a year ago, that redhead?"

"You mean Pauline?"

"Of course. Just seeing if you, uh, remembered. I was working construction at the time."

We both were, Luigi thought. God it seemed such a long time ago!

"We were going steady. She was beautiful. Most beautiful girl I ever seen, I thought. Legs went on for miles, that waist, that face… she was something. She loved my stories. Laughed at my jokes about plugged toilets, botched deliveries, how I was going to go to medical school…"

He was lost in his memory, rambling. Luigi nudged him.

"Ah, sorry. It was our first year anniversary. I wanted to surprise her, you know? Something she would always remember. It was night. I got us a cab and told her to put on a blindfold. She kept guessing what we were going to do, where we would go. I just kept asking her 'what's the blindfold for?'"

He chuckled.

"We got out at the site we were working on. New sky scraper, you know? Don't recall what it was called. I managed to get around the chain link fence and took her over to the construction elevator. When she felt we were going up, she sort of got it. 'What building are we in? Is it the Chrysler Building? Empire State? Oh Mario, you are such a romantic!'"

His smile twisted into a grimace. Luigi remembered this story. It had become a sort of joke over the last few months, but on that night…

"We got out at the very top. You could see straight out into the bay, see Lady Liberty. God it was beautiful. I led her out onto a scaffold and held her tight, so she wouldn't fall… she kept asking when I would take the blindfold off… I did. She screamed; there was nothing in between us and the sky, and I… she kept screaming. I thought it would be romantic. She slapped me, called me a bastard. A big ape, a 'friggin gorilla, trying to scare her. She wouldn't go down the elevator, and I had to call the boss. That's how we ended up back in the sewers. Never saw her again."

He sighed. And, in a voice so quiet it hardly registered, said something Luigi had never heard.

"I was going to propose."

They were well back now, among the pack animals and Shriver and his guards. Luigi looked over and saw that they were Glomps and Rimes. Strange. You had to volunteer to watch Shriver, he knew, and they had no interest in watching the shi'geh…

A red yoh'shii fell into step alongside them.

"Hello, Luigi, Mario. You so much as cry help and we'll spear you."

"Trouncher. What the hell do you think you're…"

"Didden I say to shut it?"

They were surrounded. Luigi looked over to Shriver and saw that he had been gagged. A fresh bruise closed his left eye. The three men steered them off of the trail, into denser, darker forest.

"This is what you get for barshin' on me and my friends," Trouncher hissed.

"We'll say you fell behind, got lost."

"We don't have time to look for you, see."

"Not when there's so many dead in the world everyday. Doesn't matter if you're from the bloody sky or not."

Mario felt the beveled tip of a spear press into his back.

"T'ao will…"

"Oh, he'll suspect. But we're gonna hide you good. Nobody's gonna know for sure."

"Can't hang us for two missing, am I right?"

"Anyways, they know we have it out for the shi'geh. If we did it, wouldn't we do him to?"

Mario's hand crept down to the saber at his side.

"Oh, go on. T'won't do you any good. We've got you covered, six to three. Gnasher's hungry, aint' you boy?"

Trouncher scratched his lizard's neck. Gnasher's blood red tongue lolled out.


	21. Chapter 21

"We-"

It happened too fast to comprehend. A shape flashed out of the dark and Trouncher was gone. There was a crunch and a sickening scream of pain, and Rimes was able to utter a single syllable-

"-what-"

-before a bulbous, reddish form slammed into his yoh'shii. The tulip bulb (Luigi's brain insisted, searching for a parallel) split wide in a shark's grin of dagger sized teeth and bit down on the fallen rider's leg. It shook him like a dog, tearing through trouser and flesh, Rimes bellowing in pain. Thorned creepers lashed out at the men and animals from the darkness, wrapping around legs and arms. Mario drew his saber with a 'snikt!' and slashed at the groping vines that lashed his arms and chest. Luigi scrambled from the saddle, drawing his own saber, and ran towards the suspended rider. Rimes' eyes locked on him and he pleaded for help, for Luigi to save him. No time to reflect on irony. The young man swung his sword forcefully, trying to remember what T'ao had taught him. The tip of his saber tore a foot long gash in the skin of the 'tuber' that sprayed sap all over Luigi. The plant gurgled in pain and let the mangled man fall on his head, turning its 'head' to Luigi. Rows of tiny, pinprick eyes focused on the ex-plumber and he braced himself for the charge.

"Look out," hollered Glomps.

Two more 'heads' barreled into him from the darkness, knocking the sword from his hand. Winded, he tumbled over the first more accidentally than anything and straight into the jaws of the second. He felt the pliant roof of the plant's mouth and its 'breath' wafted over him, a mixture of blood and sour cucumber. He straightened out his legs and tried to kick his way out of the mouth. Something jabbed him in the side but he was too panicked to care, flailing against gruesome death.

He was spat out like a wad of gum. A yoh'shii clawed at the thing with frenzied ferocity. A red-clad figure dragged him away from flailing creepers.

"Mario…" he whispered. The pain in his side was getting worse.

"Wrong." It was Shriver. He had somehow managed to loose his bonds and guide his mount to the ruckus.

"Help is coming. I won't be here, Lu. You owe me big now. Remember Shriver and I'll remember you."

The shi'geh ran from him with long loping strides and was gone.

"Sh-shit… Mario!"

Luigi staggered back towards the carnage. Men called out for him, for his brother, but he was only aware of the horror before him. Two yoh'shiis were dead, their skins torn open with teeth and thorn, three more struggled in vines, biting and slashing. Rimes was dead or dying. Glomps was running full tilt away from the fight.

And there was Mario. He was terrible to behold, his cloak in tatters, weeping cuts covering his face and arms, his sword flashing like lightning as thunder pealed overhead. They had barely learned to use their blades, and he had abandoned every lesson in his fury. He drove his sword into the plant-thing again and again. Lengths of twitching vines sailed by Luigi as he staggered towards the fray. A dislodged arrowhead-tooth sliced his cheek. He had to help his brother, but he was unarmed and hurt…

Thundering feet heralded the arrival of the riders, ready to save them yet again. They charged the plant, burying spear-shafts in its 'flesh.' With a final lurching spasm, the carnivore succumbed.

Two riders lifted Luigi to his feet and held him fast. The Lieutenant stormed over to him.

"What happened? Explain yourself! Why did you leave the path?!"

"We- we were…"

"Trouncher and his goons attacked us," Mario barked. He strode from the murdered plant, dripping with sap and mud.

"Where is that bastard Glopes? I'll put my fist right up…"

"Don't listen to him! He's crazy!"

Glopes shouted at them from a safe distance.

"They went the wrong way, and we were trying to just, ah, bring them back when they blundered into that mantrap! Trouncher an' Rimes are dead because of them!"

The Lieutenant, bewildered, angry, out of his league, saw the yoh'shii that had carried Shriver.

"Where is the prisoner?"

"Yeah! They were going to let him go! We saw them untying his ropes, an' then they ran into the mantrap there!"

"Liar! You were the ones guarding him!"

Mario tried to throw his sword at the cringing accuser, but the Lieutenant grabbed his wrists. Mario snarled and tried to wriggle out his grasp, more riders coming to their superior's aid. Luigi felt like he was about to go insane.

"Stop it! Don't you believe us!?"

"He's alive!"

The surgeon, Grimwell, broke through the bedlam. Everyone crowded around Rimes.

"Back off, back off! He's… just let the man breath."

Rime's left leg was badly mangled. Grimwell had made a makeshift tourniquet out of a cloak, but it was clear he would not make it. His face was ashen between spores.

"We-we made a mistake, Stars forgive me. Luigi t-tried to save me, Glopes… I can't hold anything 'gainst him now. We w-wanted to-" he gasped, "rough them up fer t-talkin' to the shi'geh. We didn't want nobody to die. D-don't punish anyone; we've suffered enough. Glopes, forgiv'em. Hatin' ain't worth shit in the end."

He refused to say anything more, no matter how they questioned him. Grimwell finally shooed them all away, save Glopes.

"Let him have a moment. I've got to attend to the others."

The surviving animals were thankfully, miraculously uninjured. Mario was relieved to see that Baby was one of them, along with Gnasher and the nameless pack yoh'shii that had carried Shriver. The doctor cursorily looked over Mario's injuries.

"You are a marvel. I'd fear for those cuts otherwise, but they're scabbing over. Lucky that a thorn didn't pop your eye, though… nasty cut on that brow there. Now for your brother…"

He pried Luigi's hands from his side. Tutted.

"You've got a tooth in there. Let me fetch my pliers…"

Luigi watched him rustle through his grubby bag and withdrew a rather tarnished looking pair of tongs. He felt sick.

"Are you sure this is necessary?"

"Absolutely. I can't sew you up with the tooth inside you. You're lucky it didn't pierce anything important as is. Here, bite this."

He bit down on the leather strap the doctor offered him.

"Hold him."

Mario and T'ao complied, pushing down on Luigi's shoulders as Grimwell did his work.

"Jesus," Luigi sobbed. He bucked and kicked; the doctor swore.

"Hold him tighter! Damn fool, you want me to nick something? I haven't even got the tooth out…"

Agony-filled minutes passed before the doctor wiped his hands on his apron.

"Done and done. Stitched up nice and neat, I do say so. Once we get to Rodan's castle I can re-open the wound and do a proper job. And we can get those spores on your hand fixed as well.

"N-no thanks, if it h-hurts like this…"

"Poor soft boy you are, I apologize for lacking alcohol. It is much better to be drunk for this sort of thing."

The four men sat a while, gloomy in that dreary grove. They watched a group of riders butcher the deceased trap, looking for the mangled body of their comrade. Glopes stood by, weeping. Mario snorted in disgust.

"So the tough guy cries, does he? He wouldn't have shed a tear for us, Luigi, after slitting our throats."

The doctor looked at him sternly.

"Mind yourself man. He may be a villain, but he is a First Rider and a companion to us all. He will suffer yet, atop the sufferings he feels now."

"Suffering? He's not suffered until I beat him down."

"Silence Mario." T'ao drew him away from the healer.

"Let me explain. They were cousins, those three, from the same village. They only had each other."

Luigi looked at Mario. Mario looked at Luigi. How could they not feel shame.


	22. Chapter 22

The encounter with the mantrap was yet another blow to the already beaten Riders. Men and animals dead; a convict escaped. Glopes took his place, standing accused of attempted murder. He was in the back of the column now. The brothers place had been reversed. The Lieutenant ordered them to stay close to him at the front.

You two are bad luck. A rock in my boot, worry not, I shant discard you. But I want to keep an eye on you, yes I do.

They at least had a yohshii each. Luigi, injured as he was, rode on the familiar, gentler Baby. Mario was saddled with Gnasher. The beast was surly and ill mannered, unfamiliar with its rider. It was just more unpleasantness.

The storm lifted the next day. But thunder still rumbled across the sky. Smoke, once hidden by the clouds, now wriggled over them, ribbons in the sky.

The limped hopelessly towards doom.

At the forest edge, the land fell away into a great valley. The remnants of agriculture and habitation dotted the wasteland in sparse clusters that guttered like coals. The castle rose above the waste, once pearly white; now pocked with craters and smudged with ash. In between them and the castle was a scene best described by a Dutch master, something out of Boschs hell or The Triumph of Death.

The land was striped with trenches, long gashes engorged with rainwater and the writhing bodies of fighting men. Above them hung airships. The brothers had expected something rather more German, the product of an alien Graf Zeppelin. These were ships, literal wooden ships held aloft by forests of droning props. There were two groups of them, duking it out over the sodden battlefield. They belched cannon-fire in rippling broadsides, tearing earth and wood and men. The white-painted royal fleet was withdrawing, their fire ragged and more than twice outnumbered by the enemy. Half of the Kupah fleet directed its attention to the ground.

What slaughter it was! Luigi had seen a snippet of it in the clearing, days and days ago. Here was a tableaux, a landscape of horrors. Fire and smoke rose in sheets above the trenches, the exhalations of musketry and cannon. Fell cries and shrieks of pain formed a symphony of wroth, accented with crashing steel and gunshot. Were those tanks? Yes the Kupah had a line of them, oaken-sided like the ships, rolling unerringly over the lines towards the beleaguered keep. They were followed by a crimson tide of shigeh, iron-clad Kupahs striding boldly through the fire.

Rodan was lost. There could be no other outcome.

We must make for the highroad, aid the refugees. This loss must not be in vain. We must save our people.

So spake the Lieutenant. The Riders were starving, their mounts spent. Before them lay only death; no glory was there here. But they would ride into hell. By the Stars would they ride!

Down the slope they charged, skirting round the enemy flank. They trampled down a knot of tents, sabers flashing at the surprised rearguard. The brothers stayed as close together as they could. It was all Luigi could do to hold onto his animal. The agonies of his side renewed with every jolt and bump.

Hold on brother, shouted Mario.

Damn them! Here come shigeh riders, on our flank!

They were cavalrymen held in reserve, the first to act against the First Riders last charge. Mounted on scrawny, stupid looking ostro-birds, the shigeh would outmatch them solely by numbers and the freshness of their steeds. They fell in alongside them, harrying them with spear and saber. A blue-clad bravo cut his way towards the middle of the formation, his sword whistling. Mario belabored Gnasher with his feet and moved to intercept him. He had never fought on lizard-back. His first swing was badly aimed, whooshing past the traitors arm. The shigeh ducked beneath his second and made a riposte, which Mario turned aside almost too late. They locked together, swords dropped in the fury of their grapple. Gnasher panted and growled, snapping at the squawking bird. Mario wrapped his hands around the shigehs neck, mindless to the blow that squashed his nose to one side. With a final, furious exhalation he threw the blaggard from the saddle to tumble in the dust.

If Pauline could see me now fucking Don Quixote

Luigi could not draw his saber. All he could do was hold his side and wait for this all to end, either in the shadow of the castle wall or the oblivion of death. He watched Grimwell topple from his steed, a feathered shaft protruding from his armpit. Glopes, liberated from his bonds by necessity, galloped past him, his back rent and seeping ichor.

They broke through. The castle loomed over them, a stream of refugees and fleeing soldiers making a river of the cobbled highway. The remaining shigeh cavalry broke off their pursuit, harried by scattered musket-shot. There was no time to regroup. They joined the flow of that deject humanity and were carried away.


	23. Chapter 23

"Hold still.'

'Mmph… fff-crack!"

Mario rubbed his newly straightened nose and mumbled a not entirely sincere thank you. The gnarled mid-wife shrugged.

"Best I can do for you."

She started to shuffle away, but Mario arrested her progress.

"Are you sure…"

"Boy, listen to me. Your brother is beyond my help."

She left him to fret.

"Hold on Lu… hold on…"

The wound his brother carried on his side was flushed, a network of spidery red lines beginning to venture out in all directions. Mario hated to admit it, but even if the doctor had lived he couldn't have done anything for his brother. Luigi would have to keep it together until they reached the capitol. Mario felt a pang of guilt. If only it had been him who'd been bitten… he was the freak. He could take it. He was supposed to be the older one, the responsible one. He had failed.

Mario walked alongside Baby and her feverish cargo. He'd traded Gnasher to a refugee for a sack of cheese and a walking stick. He'd been cheated, of course, but readily edible food was welcome. He couldn't imagine butchering the creature. He hadn't the stomach or knowhow. They ate sandwiches and drank from roadside ponds and streams. Baby was even less picky. She sated herself on the carrion that ended up in the ditches. There was plenty of it. Rodan's castle had fallen shortly after they joined the retreat, and the Ku'pah legions had harried them for days. Ostro cavalry picked off those who flagged behind, and a Ku'pah airship had come disastrously close before they reached the string of forts that protected the capitol. It had turned back only after a terrific fuselage, apparently unaffected. Mario wondered that if that many cannons could not even hurt a single ship, how could they turn back the entire fleet? He stopped thinking about it. It wasn't hard to distract himself.

It was a miserable journey, a parade of human suffering. Mario felt his heart breaking between his brother's worsening condition and the tragedy of Rodan's defeated people. No one knew what had become of the man himself. Some said he'd died fighting, others that he'd fled before any of them and was now dining on oysters and oinc with the High King. Bitter words for a bitter people.

So many suffering. Barefoot men and women carried their children on their backs or in carts filled with their dwindling possessions. The detritus of their past lives lay behind them in the dirt, abandoned piece by piece. Family portraits, books, heirlooms pressed into the mud. Spore ridden and ragged, they trudged wearily onwards into an uncertain and terrifying future.

The brothers were no novelty. Their foreign clothing had deteriorated into colorless rags under tattered cloaks. The Riders had disintegrated as a unit after their desperate charge and were absorbed into the units of fleeing soldiers who protected the pilgrims. T'ao and the Lieutenant were ahead of them in the column, and they formed a little circle with the brothers every night.

"What will happen to us," Luigi whispered to them four days after the battle. He could feel his wound throbbing, the fever beginning to blossom.

Lieutenant Glowse shrugged. His brief command had broken him, aged him by years. He sobbed softly in his sleep, and any desire to lead men had abandoned him. He still held his rank, but had more or less resigned.

"I don't know. The First Riders are history. It would have been difficult to approach the royal court without the Captain's recommendation, but with the unit destroyed…"

"I didn't know that was part of the plan."

"I think that's what he would have wanted. The court is home to our wisest scholars. If anyone can divine the meaning of your translocation, it would be them."

"But without him…"

"It will be much more difficult to get a meeting. Anything that is not directly related to the war is beneath them now."

Mario scoffed.

"You think they would have believed us with the Captain?"

"You managed to convince us. We will just have to be persistent."

But who would listen? The dream that Mario had scarce believed in was dashed, and only now did he desire it. Safety. Fame. He recalled rebuffing Luigi one night, when he had questioned their purpose here. He had been truthful at the time; he saw no reason for any of this then. How he could have survived his mortal wound. What had happened in that sewer. But since then, a flower had unfurled in his breast. A thirst for camaraderie and acceptance. He had been a minor sort of celebrity. A man from another world, a man who could not be killed, a man who had fought a Ku'pah bare-handed and lived. He yearned for recognition, but that small circle that knew him were scattered. Anonymity in this world was far more bitter than it had been at home, little that he remembered of it. A life without meaning would no longer suffice.

He made himself known among his fellow travelers as a helpful pair of hands. Whenever a cart stuck in a rut or overturned, he would be among the first to right it. If a yoh'shii ran off, he would fetch it. Word spread of his Star-blessed strength. His shoulders ached from carrying parcels and children in turn. When the day was done and his burden lifted, few could pay him.

"I am always glad to help," he said simply.

Luigi waned with every passing day. The weary miles of the march gave no comfort to his injury. The company of Glowse and T'ao meant nothing. Mario's ministrations were nothing but busywork. He was dying now, and unlike Mario there would be no miracles. The spores upon his hands were testament to that, and the infection worming through his flesh. He had long hoped for company, but these were a beaten people… was there any hope? He had no past and his future was fading away.

"Mario. Luigi. Over this next hill… you will see it. The Red King's Keep."

T'ao walked along the brothers, leading his now lame yoh'shii. He smiled (as well as he could) at them.

"We will be able to find lodgings in castle town, I warrant, and then seek an audience with the Hermit King. We'll get Luigi a proper surgeon, and everything will turn out fine."

"What will happen to you? You're still a soldier," Luigi wheezed.

"For now. I doubt they will be able to reform the First Riders. Half of the survivors have left for their homesteads already, and the Lieutenant's done with soldiering. Some will join the fight again, I suppose, or end up on the streets. It's a cruel world."

"Yeah. It's a bitch."

The valley was green, deliciously green. Here, many miles from the front, you could imagine that things were still all right, that there wasn't an army of iron-clad monsters laying waste to entire kingdoms. Green fields and cottages and windmills. Herds of the King's yoh'shiis out ranging for game. Idyllic. But the farmers stayed close to their homes, and for good reason. So many hungry people could not be controlled. Vagabonds crawled through the fields, gobbling peas and beans and raw potatoes. Some of the soldiers tried to keep the people moving; others joined in whole heartedly. A mob gathered around one of the more prosperous houses and forced their way in. There were screams and shouts and they scattered, carrying off food and silverware. All of this within sight of the city walls.

What walls! The Red King's Keep was just the tip of the pile, a pearly-white edifice that loomed over everything on its hill, immaculate, unassailable. Starred pennants flapped in the wind atop red-capped battlements. The city spilled out around it, skirt like down the hill, bound by concentric rings of white stone walls and needle-like turrets. A lumpish shanty-town of refugee tents and lean-tos straddled the city gates. The column plunged into a world of tarpaper shacks and unbearable squalor.

They were assailed by haggard soldiers and crowds of refugees seeking relatives and rumors. Progress towards the gate was slowed to a crawl. Luigi looked on it all from his vantage. So many desperately poor people. Some of them were so spore-ridden that they might turn gümbah any day, but it was difficult to tell. Everyone wrapped themselves in robes, rags, anything to divert attention from the vulgar spores. By contrast, mushrooms sprouted unchecked in the slums. Some of the larger ones had even been hollowed out and made into crude dwellings by the desperate. It was too much to take in. Pinched faces. Deadened eyes. Children crying out in hunger. He hugged himself and cried openly.

"Luigi. Be calm."

"Mario…"

"We will find a way."

Mario squeezed his bony hand.

"Thank you."

"What is taking so long," T'ao shouted at a soldier who had come from further up the column.

"The gates are shut except by official order."

"That's absurd."

"Don't tell me. The citizens fear these people. It is for their benefit."

"What about soldiers? Can't we get in the blasted city?"

"There's a queue."

"Fuck."

As if by magic, the gates opened. There was a clarion and the crowd split in two. It would have been foolish to remain in the way of that cavalry! It was the antithesis of the care-worn refugees and battered soldiers, a great host of yoh'shiis and white-clad riders. Armor flashed silver and orange pennons snapped in the wind. At the head of the host was a man far more resplendent even than the rest, his mount the deepest yellow, his armor golden.

It could only be one man. A whisper rose on the lips of thousands, transfiguring into a cry as fierce and glorious as that rarefied visage.

"The King rides to war!"

"At least we can get inside..." T'ao muttered, unheard.


End file.
